Chapter 163: Gnolls, Bunnies, and Bears, Oh My!

  Raelia tentatively picked up the rge sapphire neckce. “No, I do not know what any of these items do, but they are all clearly artifacts.” She turhe neck her hand, studying the fairies and birds on the , shaking her head in disbelief. “This jewel is perfect. It must be worth…” She did not voice her opinion and instead put it down to pick up the rge pink st.

  She examihe rings artwork, muttering, “It is beautiful.” She stepped back, clearly tempted. “Do you have any other artifacts?” I raised an eyebrow, signaling that I was not going to share my secrets.

  “No, we’ve just picked these up in the rooms we have cleared.” I picked up the sapphire neckd the pink st.

  “From my experience, dungeons do not work that way, even old ones. Maybe one in five rooms will have an artifact, and one in three creatures will yield an essence.” Her tone was accusatory as if I were hiding something from her. “Every gnoll gave you a major essence,” she stated ftly. I had already expihat the dungeon had not been delved into for turies, and I was not going to tell her that my collector ecial.

  I shrugged, ign her plea for an expnation. “If you don’t know what they do, I’ll put them away.” Both items vanished, leaving just the rings. Raelia looked longingly at my empty hands. I guessed all women, regardless of their race, liked jewelry. “ you get the thermal stone?”

  I had let her carry it in her backpack. I pced bs oone and eled aether into it. As the stone glowed red, tiny symbols formed on the inside of the rings. I had no ce of reading them, but I hoped my trick would work. I focused on at a time, turning the stoh a khree hundred and sixty degrees while I trated.

  Seeing me work, Raelia asked in astonishment, “You see that and uand the runes!”

  She distracted me, and I turhe stone again, studying each ring before answering her. “No. I was just looking.” I khe rings off the stoo cool. Raelia immediately picked both of them up before I could stop her.

  She said haughtily, “Ented rings do not get hot in fire. They are extremely difficult to destroy. You would o toss them into a volo at a ley line nexus to melt them down, or perhaps have an a dragohem with its fire breath.” She was too smug with her knowledge. I held out my hand, and she huffed, dropping the rings into it.

  “Maveith, you keep an eye on me while I sleep for a bit?” I asked the goliath, who was setting up his bed.

  Raelia scoffed. “We are in a safe room. Nothing attack you in here.” Her voice trailed off at the end, realizing I wao be protected from her.

  Maveith moderated, “I uand, Eryk. We will work on preparing a meal for when you wake.” I then brought out all the ingredients he wanted, a up with Raelia on the far side of the room. I produced the weasel pelt and my griffon down pillow to get fortable. I y down with the dreamscape amulet hidden from Raelia’s sight.

  Entering the dreamscape, I spent a good amount of time pying a game of therapeutic fetch with Oscar. I had to ignore Konstantin and the others as I focused oing the rings: one silver and one gold.

  I started with the silver ring from the frost samander, enrging it to te across so I could stand in the middle of it. It did not eveo be heated for the spell forms to pop up in glowing blue script. I could not believe it had actually worked. My subscious had been able to read the details in the real world and replicate them here.

  The dreamscape amulet was much more powerful than I had inally thought. I had gotten the idea si seemed to recreate books from Earth in perfect detail, which I had read a long time ago. Now, the challenge was figuring out what the rings did based on the books Castile left behind. Three hours ter, I was still w on the silver ring.

  As best as I could decipher from some of the spell forms that matched in the ring with Castile’s books, the ring grahe wearer resistao cold. How much resistance, I could not determine. Perhaps the ring was a reward for defeating the blizzard lizard, so you would be immuo its cold breath the ime you fought it. This would be useful, especially if we had to leave the dungeon and traverse the ruins in the snow. Should we risk trying to obtain another one?

  I repeated the process with the g . I found this rihe abandoned mert wagons wheook the old trade road after heavy rains had washed the barge transport away. The runes here were much more plex.

  After hours of studying and paring, the best I could figure out was that the ring allowed the wearer to influenother person’s disposition positively. How powerful it was, I did not know. It made sehat a trader would wear such a ring. I exited the dreamscape and was weled by the smell of roasted meat. I had gotten lost in my work and had not tracked how long I had slept. “Maveith, how long was I asleep?”

  Maveith looked over, and I could see the two had been pying checkers. “Six hours, maybe a little more.”

  Raelia huffed and announced loudly, “Maveith, you watch me while I sleep and make sure I am not molested?” She went into the stone alcove across from mio get some sleep.

  I ighe upset elf ao get some food. It was a beef stew with potatoes, onions, and bear meat. It was really good, but after a rge bowl, I found myself full. Raelia y on her side with her back to us, and I assumed she was sleeping. “Maveith, this ring will keep you warm in the cold.” Raelia twitched, and I assumed she was not actually sleeping. “See if it will resize to your finger.”

  Maveith took the ring and was amazed. “It is w! The ring is getting rger.” Raelia preteo stretd rolled over, but her eyes appeared to be closed. It took Maveith nearly ten mio slide the ring onto his finger. It thinned out a little, serving mass, but eventually he said, “I feel it w. The air around me feels slightly warmer.”

  After being trapped in the freezing city for so long, I had not noticed, but the dungeon corridors and rooms were on the cooler side. Raelia’s eyes opened slowly, and with a hint of accusation in her voice, she spoke. “I thought you said you could not read the spell forms on the ring.”

  “And I thought you were sleeping?” We stared at each other for a moment before the elf rolled over, putting her back to us again, and tried to sleep.

  “Maveith, I’m going to scout the room. Will you be safe waiting here with the elf?” I asked half-seriously. The elf pulled her bedroll tight around herself but did not respond to my jest.

  Maveith was fingering the silver ring and looked up at me, then at the elf. “I think I will be fine. I have the rest of the stew?” I nodded, and he eagerly grabbed the pot to finish it off.

  I walked down the corridor cautiously and arrived at a T-interse. I went right, and the corridor curved food long while. Finally, I arrived at another room. It was ne—maybe sixty feet across. A hilly range of dark gray and bck stone made up the floor, and the room had a twilight feel to it, with less light than usual light ing from the ceiling. I remained vigint but did not see movement. I decided not to risk entering.

  It was a long walk back to the interse and the other corridor. I hoped we could find Castile soon, as I wao avoid spendiernity in the Shimmering Labyrinth. The other corridor was much shorter, leading to a room with a hilly meadow covered in grass and small flowers—maybe seventy feet across. A fat rabbit stared at me as I approached the room. As I got closer, the rabbit darted into a burrow, and a massive bear appeared from over the mound, furiously digging in the soil, trying to reach the rabbit.

  The dark gray coat of the bear shifted with muscle as it dug, but it was not as rge as the fire bears. Taking a ce that it was the only creature in the room, I stepped in and removed its chest cavity while its back was turo me. I paused just ihe room, listening for other creatures. The fat rabbit popped up on the hill to see what was happening, its ears perked up in attention. It quickly ducked into another burrow.

  I moved farther into the room and spotted the stone chest, which made me rex. I was about to step toward it but paused. Would the durick me with a reward chest to make me lower my guard? I cautiously ehe room and notio fewer than three rabbits poking their heads up. I shattered the stone chest and took out eight silver s, a potion of greater healing, and a potion of stamina.

  So far, every bear I had killed had rewarded me with a greater healing potion in this dungeon. Was this a ce, or would this tinue? A greater dungeon healing potion was valuable. An alchemist’s major healing potion was worth fifty gold but had a shelf life. Dungeon potions had no such limitation from what I had been told. I thought it might be time to try milking the room for this healing potion sihe safe room was just a ten-minute walk away.

  I suspected this was a stone bear. The bear’s hide was coarse and difficult to cut. I harvested some meat with an elven dagger cimed was from the armory. It was not Raelia’s, as I had told her I would not use it. I waited for enough aether to retrieve the collector, stag up the best cuts as I went. I had learned a lot about harvesting game from Maveith, and I thought he would be proud of how much I had improved.

  I was not surprised when I harvested arength essence. I was slightly disappoihough, as the apex essence probably meant no one from the pany had reached this room yet. The rabbits watched me from a safe distahe eime, their instincts telling them I was the neex predator.

  As I walked through the smaller chamber, I saw only grass, clovers, and small wildflowers for the rabbits’ diet. I sidered expl further but realized I had already been gone for almost four hours, by my estimation. So, I stored everything in my dimensional spad returo the safe room. Maveith looked up as I returned and told Raelia, “Told you he was okay. Eryk take care of himself.”

  Raelia replied quickly, “I was not worried. I was just asking if we should che him.”

  I ighe exge and told them what I found. “The corridor forked. There’s a simple meadow room with a stone bear.” I produced fifty pounds of bear meat o Raelia’s bed. “There are some quick rabbits in the room, but I couldn’t caty of them. Maybe we get some with a bow. I did er the room at the end of the other fork; it had uneven rock terrain, and I didn’t see any threats, so it could be an ambush predator.”

  “You killed a stone bear by yourself?” Raelia said, astohen added, “Of course you did.” As if it were not a big deal. Then, irritated, she moved her bedding to ehe blood from the meat did not reach it.

  Maveith looked disappointed. “Is this all you harvested?” I added the kidneys and liver to the pile, and he cheered up. Not that I would be eatiher.

  , I handed Maveith the apex strength essence. “It’s a strength essence, Maveith. Take it . We’re going to clear the gnoll room again after the dungeoocks it.”

  Raelia’s eyes watched the essence jealously as it passed from my hand to Maveith’s and then directly into his mouth. “Why are we fighting the gnolls again?” Her tone was challenging.

  “Because I said so,” I said, sitting down, rexing near my bed. Maveith shot me a look to be nicer, so I added, “Partly for the essences, but mostly because of the potatoes and the water from the stream.” That expnation seemed to pcate the griffin rider. “Maveith, I got two potions as well. A greater healing potion and a stamina potiohem accessible, and you give the elf one of the lesser healing potions.”

  “Maveith already gave me bae of my healing potions. A greater dungeon healing potion?” Raelia inquired, suddenly highly ied and moving closer.

  I frow Maveith, but I suppose it was his right to give the lesser healing potion to the elf. I just wished he had told me. “Yes. So far, the reward chests in this dungeon for bears seem to give a greater healing potioime.” I thought for a mihis was the fifth time I had killed a dungeon bear, and the reward chest had a greater healing potion each time.”

  “You have five greater dungeon healing potions! They are worth five hundred gold each!” Raelia excimed.

  “No, that’s the only o. Maveith got one, Konstantin got one, and you got two,” I said, doing the math.

  “You gave me two greater healing potions?!” She excimed in shock.

  “Yeah, you looked like a dragon’s chew toy, and I only wao give you one, but Maveith insisted you needed ao survive,” I replied. If Maveith was ied in the elf, the least I could do was make him look good.

  Raelia was quiet for a moment before she whispered, “Thank you.” But I did not know if she was direg it at me or the goliath.

  We returo the gnoll chamber a half day ter to find the eight gnolls restored. Raelia was able to take out six in a single fireball, which made the room extremely easy. It was time to start squeezing the bears and gnolls for essences and loot.

  ? Chted 2024 by AlwaysRollsAOne

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